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Image forming apparatusRelated Patent Categories: Electrophotography, Diagnostics, Unit Or Part IdentificationImage forming apparatus description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070036560, Image forming apparatus. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-215952, filed on Jul. 26, 2005, the entire subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] Aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of image carriers on each surface of which an electrostatic latent image is formed and a toner is adhered to the electrostatic latent image by a developing unit; and a transfer unit that transfers the toner adhering to each image carrier to a recording medium. More specifically, aspects of the invention relate to an image forming apparatus in which the toners adhering to the image carriers differ from one another, and each of the image carriers is configured so as to be individually attachable to and removable from a main body of the image forming apparatus. BACKGROUND [0003] Conventionally, an image forming apparatus comprises: an image carrier on the surface of which an electrostatic latent image is formed and a toner is adhered to the electrostatic latent image by a developing unit; and a transfer unit that transfers the toner adhering to the image carrier to a recording medium. With this kind of image forming apparatus, when the electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the image carrier, the toner is adhered to the electrostatic latent image by the developing unit. When the toner adhering to the image carrier is transferred to the recording medium by the transfer unit, a toner image can be formed on the recording medium in accordance with the electrostatic latent image. [0004] Also, there is an image forming apparatus of this kind equipped with four image carriers in a main body of the image forming apparatus. The colors of toners adhered by developing units to the image carriers are yellow, magenta, cyan and black. The four color toners are transferred to be superimposed on a recording medium to form a color image. With this kind of image forming apparatus, each of the image carriers is configured to be individually attachable and removable, and the image carriers are appropriately replaced in accordance with a lifespan. [0005] In the image forming apparatus equipped with the plurality of image carriers, when a user attaches the image carriers in a wrong arrangement order, an effective image formation may become impossible. According to an image forming apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2001-343883, when the arrangement order of the image carriers is wrong, a user is informed of the abnormality. SUMMARY [0006] However, with such an image forming apparatus, in the event that the arrangement order of the image carriers is wrong, the user needs to reload the image carriers when an abnormality alert is informed. Thus, the operability is poor. Depending on the arrangement order of the image carriers, even though it is different from the order determined in advance, a sufficiently good image formation may be possible by setting appropriate image formation conditions, such as a bias voltage. [0007] Aspects of the invention provide an image forming apparatus equipped with a plurality of image carriers where in a sufficiently good image formation is possible even though the arrangement order of the image carriers is changed. [0008] According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus including a plurality of image carriers on each surface of which an electrostatic latent image is formed, each of the image carriers being attachable and detachable; a plurality of development units each adhering a toner to the electrostatic latent image carried on corresponding one of the image carriers, the development units adhering toners that are different from each other, a plurality of transfer units that transfer the toners adhering to the image carriers to a recording medium; an order detection unit that detects an arrangement order of the loaded image carriers; and an image formation condition setting unit that sets an image formation condition for at least one of the developing unit and each of the image carriers based on the arrangement order detected by the order detection unit. [0009] In the above configuration, the order detection unit detects the arrangement order of the plurality of image carriers and, based on the order detected, the image formation condition setting unit sets the image formation condition related to each of the image carriers or the developing unit. Thus, even when a user changes the arrangement order of the image carriers, the image formation condition is set in accordance with that arrangement order, and an efficient image formation is possible. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0010] FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an internal configuration of a printer according to an aspect of the invention; [0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system of the printer; [0012] FIGS. 3A to 3C are explanatory diagrams showing a configuration of an operation panel of the printer; [0013] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a toner order checking process executed by the control system; [0014] FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a table used in the process; and [0015] FIGS. 6A and 6B are explanatory diagrams showing examples of obtaining correction information by a calculation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0016] Now, a description will be given of an aspect of the invention with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an internal configuration of a color laser printer (hereafter simply called as a printer) 1 as an image forming apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, the printer 1 in this aspect is a so-called tandem type color laser printer. [A Configuration of a Color Laser Printer] [0017] The printer illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises: a recording engine 7 as an image formation unit, which comprises a toner image formation section 4 and a sheet conveyor belt 6 as a belt member; a fixing unit 8; a sheet feeding unit 9; a controller 10; and a high voltage power supply 20. The printer 1 forms an image of four colors, in accordance with image data received from an external device, on a sheet P as a recording medium. Continue reading about Image forming apparatus... Full patent description for Image forming apparatus Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Image forming apparatus patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Image forming apparatus or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: System and method for ordering components and services for a machine Next Patent Application: Image forming apparatus having dismountable units necessary for image forming Industry Class: Electrophotography ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Image forming apparatus patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.17622 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Electronics: Semiconductor , Audio , Illumination , Connectors , Crypto , 174 |
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